I wasn’t tired. He had heart failure.

English

As reported to Erica Rimlinger

“It’s going well. What happens is that I didn’t eat enough when I have breakfast,” I told Medical Staff in First Aid. I was preparing to leave the hospital. My colleagues, I explained, were too careful when they asked for an ambulance for me. They told the paramedics that I lost knowledge and that I struck the desk when I fell. I didn’t remember that, but the bruise that was formed on one side of my body was proof of what they said.

Nevertheless, I was ashamed of the whole stir and I wanted to go home, so after I had insisted that they let me out first aid. I am a lawyer and I can be very convincing. Yes, I was tired. Which mother who works is not? I thought the menopause, my medicine for migraine and lack of sleep caused the difficulty that I had experienced when I climbed the stairs or when I loaded my skis to the Telesquí.

That night, and the following days and nights, I generally felt bad. I couldn’t describe it: it was an inconvenience. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t sleep. One night at 2 or 3 hours I anxiously changed channels in bed and I started to see a comedy special by Rosie O’Donnell.

At that time, O’Donnell described the symptoms of heart conditions that women have suffered. I remembered that the medical staff had suggested that a heart problem could be one of the many possible causes of my fainting and that they recommended that they follow a follow -up of a cardiologist. I did not believe that I had a heart problem because I was 48 years old and I was reasonably responsible for my health, but I still planned an appointment with a cardiologist.

At that time, O’Donnell mentioned all the specific symptoms I had on television. Pain on the back of the arm or neck? Yes fatigue? Yes ¿excess liquid preservation? I looked at my ankles and was swollen. Yes, feel fear? Naturally.

O’Donnell said, “If you experience these symptoms, go to the hospital now.” At those moments I was worried. At 5:15 am I woke up my husband and went to first aid.

This time I kept doing a full investigation. I still didn’t know the cardiologist with whom I programmed the appointment, but he was just there. I was diagnosed with total heart failure. There were no blockages in my heart, but it only worked between 5 and 10% of its capacity. He said, “It’s like his heart didn’t work. We don’t know how he is still alive.” They had to undergo a heart surgery for emergency situations for a Defibrillator and Pacemaker.

It was shocked. I couldn’t believe I was so sick. In fact, my brain that had been robbed of oxygen, so much against this news that I told my husband that the doctor told us that I could take my medication and go home. The doctor had to explain my situation three times and even had to draw!

My surgeons installed a defibrillator and pacemaker for my heart to spend Beats correctly. I had to rest for a month at work and when I returned, I did it with reduced days. Although my doctors and I identify the right doses of my medicines, I have done months of cardiac rehabilitation, hard work to restore my health three times a week with two sessions for as much time as long as my insurance pays those services.

At that moment I wanted to fully recover, but remembering that I would like to have been more patient. In addition to the physical burden on my illness, I started to feel uncontrollable sadness. Fortunately, surgeons warned me it was Something common after heart surgerySo the seemingly random outbursts of crying did not completely surprise me.

With the combination of devices and medicines that supplemented my heart function, I felt a huge difference in my energy levels in early stages of my recovery. I felt that my brain would go thousands per hour. I fully started to understand how much I delayed when processing information when I was sick. Almost immediately, 20 pounds for the water that no longer held, and a month and a half after my operation I could walk three miles with my husband at night. He couldn’t have walked that much for a while.

2025

I share my story with other women because my life was saved by someone who told him what happened to him. I am a well -trained and conscious person, but I did not recognize the symptoms. I remember how I deal with my busy life, feel sick, but without analyzing that feeling and without stopping to adjust it or to question. Now I pay attention to my instincts. If I feel that something is wrong, I don’t ignore it. I let someone evaluate it.

I tell women my age who do not automatically exclude the possibility of heart conditions. Although I did not use alcohol or drugs, I have learned that the heart can deteriorate in other ways. One of my doctors suggested that my heart disease could have been caused by an infection and my genetics.

Recently my doctors talked to me about the possibility of removing the pacemaker. Sometimes, after having worked well for a while, the heart can return itself correctly with the return of electrical signals. I still don’t know what the future has in store from a medical point of view. I never wanted to become a symbol of heart disease, but as a woman reads this and recognizes her experience in my story, my heart will be filled with joy.

This educational source is prepared with the support of Novartis

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